As the rain clears

Reed Warbler

 With the birding in Doorstepshire a bit quiet I had a few species pencilled in for the weekend, and despite the less than helpful weather, I have come across  a few goodies over the last few days. Firstly, actually on the birding front, I enjoyed watching, and listening to the Reed Warblers at Upton Warren Sunday, from the screens on the North Moors. With a bit of patience one lingered just long enough for a picture.I then popped along to see some Bee Orchids, which seem to have done well this year

Bee Orchid

In the Eddy I came across a large emergence of Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars, and found a new moth for my ever expanding list, a Dingy Shell. The picture was rubbish however, due to shower number 2.
Also on the wing were Small White,  Speckled Wood, Red Admiral and a Large Skipper as well as Large Red Damselfly. The Skipper was a year first for me, but was only seen briefly through my bins.

The next day I wanted to try and connect with 3 new species of Odonata. Firstly I headed to Grimley for a shufty. I simply could not linger there, as the midges were doing my head in, but fortunately what I had hoped to see was away from the worst of them. I only connected with one, but the Black-tailed Skimmers are worth a few minutes of anyone's time in my book, and I will return to try and see a mature male in the coming weeks.

Black-tailed Skimmer

As I was putting my stuff back in the car, I had a surprise close encounter with a Brown Hare, coming within just a few feet of me. I have some video here. Whilst watching the fellow, a Cuckoo called.

Brown Hare

And so it was back up the road to Hartlebury, where JK had called me from to say that both Scarce Chaser and Red Eyed Damselfly were showing. A couple of days earlier we had spent a fruitless and damp hour looking for them there, but the sun was working its magic.

Red-eyed Damselfly

Scarce Chaser

There was no hiding today !